As for the whereabouts of Makise Kurisu—

Even the Seimei Holy Grail's records cut off several years ago.

(The Foundation made something like that that can monitor the world or some shii in the early or mid chapters of the fic.)

Her whereabouts are unknown.

In today's modern society—

As long as someone exists, there will always be traces of them on the internet.

Even if they change their appearance, use special methods, and replace biometric signals like fingerprints—

Restarting life under a different identity—

That might fool most people in the world, and even the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

But it can't hide from the Seimei Holy Grail.

At present, the Seimei Holy Grail has evolved to an unimaginable level.

Every person active online—

Their subtle preferences, the order of words they habitually use, their reactions to certain images and works—

All of these act like electronic fingerprints. The Holy Grail can capture them and match them to the person.

So, Makise Kurisu has effectively vanished like a "divine disappearance."

The Foundation is still investigating the incident.

As for the Old AI itself—

For unknown reasons, the current dominant consciousness is "Yui."

This AI entity named "Yui"—

Exhibits cognitive characteristics almost identical to a human.

Her personality leans toward kindness, with strong affection for Yuuki Asuna and Haruto. She can assist the Foundation in large-scale computational verification tasks.

Her hardware utilization efficiency is about 3.5 times that of the Foundation's supercomputers.

Her main body is currently stored at a Foundation site—While an extended instance remains on Yuuki Asuna's special mobile device.

She is not allowed to connect to other hardware or networks.

That concludes all the post-incident handling of the SAO case.

At present, the Foundation's focus has shifted toward contact with the "Spirit" parallel reality.

As an adjacent parallel reality to the Prime World—

The "Spirit" reality has a Foundation,

But unlike the Prime World, it is just one of many supernatural organizations hidden in the dark. The dominant organization of the "Spirit" reality—

Is the Global Occult Coalition (GOC).

The reason the Prime World Foundation wants contact and integration with the "Spirit" reality—

Is simple.

Because the "Spirit" reality contains the biological entities known as Spirits.

Although the initial four Spirits—First Spirit, Time Spirit, Diva, and Angel—have all joined the Foundation—

The supernatural organizations of the "Spirit" reality—

Have, through the biological characteristics of Spirits—

Made contact with concepts of spatial and world barriers.

There is a high probability that during a technological boom—They could develop technology to cross world barriers or travel between spaces.

When that happens, the Prime World will inevitably experience anomalous events.

To avoid such trouble—The Prime World Foundation intends to infiltrate the parallel reality in advance.

At the very least, they aim to keep the progress of that world's technology under control—And along the way, capture the remaining Spirits.

As for Haruto—

Recently, he has been avoiding Miku Izayoi.

He can't shake the feeling that this Diva' gaze toward him is becoming stranger and stranger.

Although someday the truth about his crossdressing will be exposed—It's better to delay it as much as possible.

Coincidentally, the new school term has begun.

This is also Haruto's final year at one of the Three Great Academies.

By this time, students in Japan's high schools—Have basically already determined their future paths.

Whether they can enter a university is almost already set.

Most people, if their grades are poor, won't bother struggling in vain. Some will try other paths through clubs. Others will have already chosen their career plans, preparing for further study or employment.

That trope in anime—

Where a failing student for two and a half years suddenly announces they'll enter university, gets mocked by the class—

Rarely happens in reality.

The situation at the Three Great Academies is better—

Their university admission rate is high.

Even if grades are poor, employment is a good choice.

Graduates of the Three Great Academies are in high demand among companies. And most students from the Three Great Academies have wealthy family backgrounds.

Inheriting the family business is the most common path.

Returning to the present—

When Haruto returned to the classroom of Sōbu High—

He immediately drew the stares of many students.

After all, Haruto is rarely seen.

Usually, they only get a glimpse of him at the start of a term. If they don't look now, they won't see him later.

Faced with everyone's gaze, Haruto could only smile wryly.

He wasn't going to skip this semester.

Since it was still early, there weren't many students in the class yet.

Among them was Gabriel.

"You're finally back! My games! Waaa!"

This fallen angel's mental state was a bit worrying.

Haruto's lips twitched.

Just then, the "human angel" Vignette happened to pass by.

Haruto stopped this so-called demon who was in truth an angel.

"Vignette, what's up with… her?"

He pointed at Gabriel.

Vignette followed his finger—

And couldn't help but facepalm.

"Probably because she couldn't play games during the summer vacation and it drove her crazy. When returning to Heaven or Hell, without a valid reason, you can't bring electronic devices. Although Gabriel seemed to have prepared plenty of smuggling tricks and excuses, apparently none passed inspection."

Like Gabriel and Vignette—

They came to the human world for practical training. So during vacations they are required to return to Heaven and Hell.

They have to report their human-world activities to their respective principals.

Like submitting a work log.

This determines the amount of funding Heaven and Hell will allocate to them for the next term.

Over the summer vacation, Gabriel indeed wasn't home.

When she left for Heaven—

She looked extremely confident.

But—

It clearly didn't work out.

Haruto nodded.

"In a way, not letting Gabriel play games for three months… this reaction is normal."

Vignette nodded in agreement.

But then she heard Haruto continue:

"Since Gabriel's already gone through three months of internet withdrawal, maybe I should help her out. I could have Shiro hack her devices. Ban her game accounts where needed, activate child lock modes—who knows, maybe Gabriel will turn back into an angel."

After speaking, Haruto revealed a serene and "kind" smile.

Vignette's lips twitched.

Are you the devil?

Meanwhile, Gabriel—still cheering—

Suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

She shivered unconsciously.

"Who?! What scoundrel dares plot against me?!"

Hearing this, Haruto's smile only grew.

Oh?

You're bold!

Seeing his expression—Vignette silently mourned for Gabriel for three seconds. Then walked over and patted Gabriel's shoulder.

"Huh? Vignette, what's with you? Wait, why do I feel uneasy?!"

Gabriel had no idea why she was being mourned for.

In the middle of the noise—Shizuka Hiratsuka walked in.

Seeing this cold and imposing homeroom teacher enter—The students immediately returned to their seats and quieted down.

Hiratsuka slapped the desk with her folder.

Her gaze fell on Haruto.

After staring at him briefly, she finally spoke:

"This term, our class will be welcoming a transfer student."

Hearing this, the students started whispering among themselves.

A transfer student is different from an exchange student—They're already enrolled in Sōbu High, just moving from another class.

Since they're from the same school—

There's a good chance someone here knows them.

Naturally, everyone was curious.

Haruto's expression, however, became a little strange.

"What, don't tell me this is going to be some cliché light novel plot—The transfer student publicly confessing their love, that kind of drama."

His seatmate Yukinoshita Yukino noticed his odd expression—

And immediately formed strange guesses.

In Japanese light novels—

There was a long trend for a certain trope—

A school idol-level beauty suddenly transferring into the male protagonist's class. Then publicly confessing to him in front of everyone.

Sometimes even declaring marriage.

The male protagonist is usually an unnoticed loner.

Who had some prior encounter with the school idol, or was noticed for something unusual. But the male protagonist doesn't remember her at all.

This kind of plot—

While melodramatic, is indeed popular.

Haruto's lips twitched.

There's no way it will be that cliché.

But the person outside the door…

Is probably indeed here specifically for him.